Prosecution: MacCallum did it for 'money, kids and insurance'

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By David Smith

Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

By David Smith

Posted Dec. 13, 2013 at 9:37 AM

By David Smith

Posted Dec. 13, 2013 at 9:37 AM

Yreka

Tasked with the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of Patricia MacCallum in her husband's murder, Assistant District Attorney Joe Allison spent the better part of Thursday laying out the prosecution's closing arguments to the jury.

Allison's statement reviewed for the jury the weeks of testimony presented by the prosecution's witnesses but also included analysis that Allison felt was relevant for the jury to consider.

Among the focal points was the ability of Chris MacCallum to fend off attackers due to his martial arts training. Allison rejecting the idea that someone else could have killed Chris MacCallum because he believed it would require wrestling the gun away from a martial arts master.

"Who else in the cast of characters didn't kill Christopher MacCallum?" Allison said, ultimately laying blame on Patricia MacCallum, who admitted to investigators that she had bought a gun that detectives considered consistent with bullets found at the scene.

Allison led the jury through a thorough review of the testimony offered by MacCallum's half-sister, Amber Lubbers,

who accepted an immunity agreement in exchange for testimony that MacCallum had revealed a desire for her husband to be gone and that she had witnessed MacCallum commit the crime.

Allison touched on the immunity agreement in his argument, stating that he believed Lubbers had no reason to lie in her testimony because of her immunity to prosecution, as well as her close relationship with the defendant.

To provide a foundation for the idea that there was tension between Patricia and Chris MacCallum in the months leading to the murder, Allison read text message conversations and dating website logs to the jury, building on the idea that she wanted the victim out of the way to pursue her freedom.

Saying that it was believed Patricia MacCallum killed her husband out of consideration for "money, kids and insurance," Allison argued that Chris MacCallum was murdered, in part, out of a desire to collect Social Security money to raise his children without his interference.

"(Chris' former fiancée) Samantha Adams said Chris would take a bullet for his kids," Allison said in closing. "The people submit that that is exactly what happened."

Judge Karen Dixon, observing the available time for the day, extended to defense attorney William Duncan the opportunity to start his closing arguments today.